Cast of Characters

I am a writer who just happens to love family trees. As the self proclaimed Family Historian and Writer in Residence at my house, I blog to others about family history writing. When I first began this journey, everyone was bored silly with my "family tree stuff." Once I started writing the stories down, everyone willingly joined in. Now the whole family pretty much participates! Imagine that ! Follow along, and you can gain a little family appreciation for all your hard nosed genealogical research while learning a little something about the craft of writing too.

Tag: how to write

There is storytelling, and then there is telling a story that makes sense(even years into the future–long after it’s written). Sometimes as Family Historians, we find that our tales get twisted up into mazes of confusion and backtracking.

It’s frustrating. I’ve been there, and I understand completely.

At times, even while we’re writing a piece we just know that it will “never do.”Unfortunately, this is how so many of us give up before we ever really start. So here’s my 10-step remedy for such situations. Follow along, and you’ll be writing up a storm of concise, pithy, and entertaining stories in no time!

Start writing. Don’t worry about nerves, editing or accuracy. Just think about a person or branch of the family or an event you would like to tell a story about and jump in.

Keep writing. Write everything you know via family lore, genealogical and historical research. Throw in the dates and stats and census info with both hands.

Gather together all the media (photos, ephemera, source books etc) and check to see if you’ve left anything out. If you find something, add it to this beautiful and unruly monster of a piece.

Write a bit more about how you came to discover/know/guess some or all of the details surrounding this subject: “Old Daniel always wore striped overalls, he saved the solid denim set for Sunday Church”–per photos and stories told to me by Aunts Aida and Lily Poindexter and Uncle Les James.

When you simply cannot write any more about this seemingly narrow subject, get out your red pen.

Begin circling small or large blocks of text that could be made bigger. Who are the other people (neighbors, the mail carrier, a teacher, the Poindexter Aunts and Uncle Les James) mentioned in the story? Do they matter? Is the setting of the tale interesting in itself? Did these events take place at a newly built home or on a farm passed through generations, on a steamship or clipper crossing the Atlantic in August? Did someone die of “Consumption?” What the heck is Consumption? Is there back-story here that needs to be built into the telling so that years from now (when “everyone” doesn’t possess what we currently think of as common knowledge) people will “get it?” Would a future reader need to do research to understand or find explanations in order for this tale to hold their attention? Perhaps the small town your relatives “traded in” no longer exists. What does “traded in” mean? Can you map the town–if no, why not? Was it wiped out in the TVA project? What was the TVA? Was the town on the main road, and suddenly the railroad came through about a mile to the east…killing all the businesses and leaving the area abandoned? Was their small town situated in a place now swallowed up by a larger city and only referred to on maps as a neighborhood? Was your family’s first home on American soil razed to build Slugger Stadium in Louisville (mine was)?

Don’t be intimidated. This really is the fun part. This is when you discover that you have a much larger story to tell when you may have thought otherwise. The “trick” is to dissect it in this way so that it doesn’t all get convoluted and too laborious to read.

Now take your time. Choose a circle of red ink. Relax. Simply tell the story of that singular snippet. Make the story fragment into a stand alone piece. Give it all the care and attention that you would give a larger essay. Try out steps 1-7 on this new work. Slowly tease out any extraneous info. Squirrel away the discards for potential use in another paragraph or chapter. Don’t allow yourself to worry about weaving together the bigger story at this point in the writing process.

As a luxurious bonus, if you have a kind friend who knows little-to-nothing about your subject matter, ask if you may read a completed story to them. Have your listener stop you anytime they have a question or have no point of reference for what or whom you are storytelling about. This info is gold…it’s just like having a reader from the future sit with you over coffee and ask you questions about the story you are telling.

This method will work equally well with pieces already written. Look over an older story and put it to the test using this exercise. See if anything about it cries out for the red pen treatment! You may find yourself with an additional batch of stories that will add to the richness of your work.

Above all, enjoy your writing and storytelling. Go ahead and tell as many stories as you’d like. But make the events clear, interesting and well thought-out so your readers will stay engaged and keep turning pages and wanting more.

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There is storytelling, and then there is telling a story that makes sense (even years into the future and long after it’s written). Sometimes as Family Historians, we find that our tales get twisted up into mazes of confusion and backtracking.

It’s frustrating. I’ve been there, and I understand completely.

At times, even while we’re writing a piece we know that it will “never do.” Unfortunately, this is how so many of us give up before we’ve ever really started. So here’s my 10-step remedy for such situations…presented of course with one of Mom’s little soul-baring stories as a side dish…

10 Steps to Writing a Good Story (that makes sense)

The first time I attended a writing workshop I was full of fire! Inside my leather satchel (yes, it’s been that long ago) I had four typed and double spaced pages of pure storytelling genius. Our samples were collected at the door by a teaching assistant, and then whisked away to the copier room to reproduce one set for each attendee.

Back then, I would guess the photocopying and stapling expense comprised about half of the $25 fee for the series.

Over the next three Thursday evenings, we were immersed in technique discussions and submission sample reviews done in alphabetical order by each author’s last name. Until my “time at the table” I was feeling really good about my little story. Dang good. But when “R” time came in the lineup, my confidence faltered. I deflated, melted, and disintegrated into a thin grimy layer of humiliated dust atop my chair.

The teacher was quite nice about “it” –the killing of my pages that is. She could have been much worse I suppose. As she wrapped up the previous story’s glowing critique and announced my piece, she fanned out the four pages, raised them above her head and proclaimed them “a perfect example of a beginner’s error.”

Oh Murder!

Apparently, in the meager 1000 words I had slavishly typed during lunch breaks on the nice IBM Selectric at work, I had wasted no paper. She briskly lead us through my beloved pages emptying out red pens as she guided us in circling large chunks of my lovely prose.

As it turned out, I had managed to write about five different story fragments in one small essay.

“Yes,” she reiterated to my classmates, “This is a perfect example of the huge mistakes a beginner makes.”

So in an effort to spare you all from making the same classic “beginner’s errors” I offer you my 10 Steps to writing a clean, clearly focused, enduring and easily understood Family History story.

Start writing. Don’t worry about any of the above. Just think about a person or branch of the family or an event you would like to tell a story about and begin.

Gather together all the media (photos, ephemera, source books etc) and check to see if you’ve left anything out. If you find something, add it in to this piece.

Write a bit more about how you came to discover/know/guess on the details of the subject: “Old Daniel always wore striped overalls, he saved the solid denim set for Sunday Church”–per photos and stories told to me by Aunts Aida and Lily Poindexter and Uncle Les.

When you simply cannot write any more about this seemingly narrow subject, get out your red pen.

Begin circling small or large blocks of text that could be made bigger. Who are the other people (neighbors, the mail carrier, a teacher, the Poindexter Aunts and Uncle Les) mentioned in the story? Do they matter? Is the setting of the tale of interest on its own? Did these events take place at a newly built home or on a farm passed through generations, on a steamship or clipper crossing the Atlantic in August? Is there back-story here that needs to be added in so that years from now–when “everyone” doesn’t possess what we currently think of as common knowledge people will “get it?” Would a future reader need to do research to understand or find explanations in order for this tale to hold their attention? Perhaps the small town your relatives “traded in” no longer exists. Can you map it– if no, why not? Was it wiped out in the TVA project? What was the TVA? Was the town on the main road, and suddenly the railroad came through about a mile to the east…killing all the businesses and leaving the area rather abandoned? Is that small town now swallowed up by a larger city and only referred to on maps as a neighborhood? Was your family’s first home on American soil razed to build Slugger Stadium in Louisville (mine was!)?

Don’t be intimidated. This really is the fun part. This is when you discover that you have a much larger story to tell when you may have thought otherwise. The “trick” is to dissect it in this way so that it doesn’t all get convoluted and become a “perfect example of huge mistakes that beginners make.”

Now take your time. Go back to each circle of red ink. Relax. Simply tell your reader the story of that solitary snippet. Make it into a stand alone piece. Give it all the care and attention that you’ve given it’s “parent” essay.Try out steps 1-7 on this new work. Worry about weaving together the bigger story later.

As a luxurious bonus, if you have a kind friend who knows little to nothing about your subject matter, ask them if you may read a completed story to them. Have them stop you anytime they have a question or have no point of reference for what or whom you are storytelling about. This info is gold…it’s just like having a reader from the future sit with you over coffee and ask you questions about the story you are telling.

Since this method will work equally well with pieces you’ve already written…put them through this exercise and see if anything cries out for the red pen treatment! You may find an additional batch of stories to write adding to the richness of the work you’re doing.

Above all, enjoy your writing and storytelling. Go ahead and tell as many stories as you’d like. But make the events clear, interesting and well thought-out so your readers will stay engaged and keep turning pages and wanting more.

Maybe even throw in a photo of yourself at work on the laptop you used to write it with…imagine what a hoot that’ll be to your great grandchildren seeing dinosaurs of all types!

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Pets may not sound like a big deal when it comes to writing a good family history, but just try asking about an animal in a photo and see where the path unfurls!

Ponies, chickens, hound dogs, cats, and even prized hogs and rabid coons have all been a part of many of my stories. Sometimes just hearing the animal’s name and then asking where the inspiration came from opens a stream of new conversation. I recall Ellie, Mr Pooch, the triplets Red, White and Blue, Purp, Mable, Bunny, Chopper and Johnny to name a few. My Great Grandpa loved to talk about his best milk cow, Soupy, who he named after comedian Soupy Sales.

Take a look at the photo below, not exactly of a family pet, but viewing it and asking about it’s origin actually turned into a long chat about the whole family going to the Cincinnati Zoo one weekend. This then led into the stories told about the building of I-74 which you may now take to get to the zoo from Indianapolis!

Mom petting a lion cub at the Cincinnati Zoo c 1964

Sometimes an expression you have heard a million times will only make since once you can finally connect the dots.

My dad has always referred to the movie “Fatal Attraction” as the “Kill Chickens” movie.

Now, I thought he was just using some weird codeto indicate that it was time to change the channel if the grand kids were around and it happened to come on TV. But one day, I was listening to him tell a story about his grandfather during the war years when food and everyday items were under rationing restrictions.

Just keep “Fatal Attraction” = “Kill Chickens Movie” in mind

My dad had a pet Rooster (a chicken to city folks) named Elmer. He won him on a little traveling midway fair and square and had raised Elmer from chick-hood. One day when Little-Kid-Dad came home from school, Elmer was no where to be found. He found it odd that Elmer was not pecking around in his pen. That night, with his own Grandfather visiting from out of town as an honored guest, chicken and noodles were served for dinner!

Kill Chickens.

Glen Close.

Pet Bunny.

Boiling Pot.

Oh Dear Lord!

So ask around, if you dare, about the animals you see in the background of photos. Or learn a little something about how GG Grandpa raised his prize winning Blue Tick Hounds (cover your ears for the “runts” fate). Was there a famous comic cow in your family barn? We had a crawdad the size of a small lobster named Alfred…but he really smelled up my brother’s room. Somehow he escaped from his tank and was never seen again. Hmmm…

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This dream that I’m naked at school is one that has haunted me off and on for years.

A few weeks ago, I experienced one of those “nightmare come true” type of things. Like everyone, I have a recurrent dream about high school. I am in the halls, between classes, and utterly lost. I’m not sure where I am supposed to be, which class is next, or what books I need to wedge out of my locker. In fact, I don’t even remember which locker is mine. When my favorite teacher Mrs Goodwin suddenly appears, I feel a bit of relief. I credit her with herding me through the hallways when I was physically there, I know I can count on her in a dream.

BJ Goodwin was a feisty little women. She kept a pair of old lady spectacles perched on the tip of her nose. If displeased, a spontaneous twitch would make the reading glasses hop. This in turn caused the dangling chain to flash like an angry snake’s warning. Kids at my school were sure she was older than God Himself and had schooled him on the whole “wrath” thing.

Her knowledge of grammar and punctuation was above reproach. After just one semester in her writing mechanics class, if she didn’t fail you for fun, one could fight to the death, certain of victory, over the uses of there, they’re and their respectively. Good old Mrs. Goodwin was the stern mistress of the Language Arts wing. I concurrently adored her and feared her.

That’s where I usually wake up gasping in panic. Phew! Just a dream~I check the clock to tether myself to reality and then I roll over and call it a night…until the next time

On June 23rd my nakedness nightmare crossed lines and came fully into the realm of the real world. My silly-naughty-mess-method writing style was inadvertently put on display right here in the (virtual) school hallway. It was as mortifying as any episodic public nakedness could be. Both me and the oft-dreamt-of Mrs Goodwin were rightfully appalled.

I had a deadline...A couple of months ago I signed up for a tantalizing peer review workshop for new manuscripts. When I received notice that the session was full and that I would be wait-listed, frankly I just forgot about it. I promptly put my fledgling novel aside and went on with Mom-life as usual. On Sunday, three days before the beginnig of class I was notified that a seat had become open. Along with my $135 fee, all I had to send in was the first 10,000 words of my work. Oh Crap.

With no time to waste, I was flying on the keyboard. When I say flying, I mean that I was using barely coherent language, purely phonetic spelling and shards of sentences.Sequences of letters encrypted in a code only decipherable by me and fully lacking any graces of the English language…that’s the track I was on. The ideas in the story were coming faster than the words could land onto the screen. I had to get 10,000 spectacular words out of my head and into a readable format to be able to participate in the coveted workshop. And messy as it was, it was at least working until~

A nagging question and answer vignette with Mrs G began playing in my head:

Me: Ugh~ why do you assign us homework if you aren’t having a test? Why do I have to do all of this writing, no one is ever going to see it? What difference does a gerund make in my life? …and on and on

Mrs G: Because it’s for your own good…If you slack off and fall short of your potential you’re only cheating yourself… Homework isn’t for me, it’s for you…I may be able to push you to greatness but, I am sure as hell not willing to drag you there!

Yes, she would say stuff like this, she cussed in class. Scandalous and titillating! This was, after all, in 1970’s rural Indiana…we didn’t have HBO yet. Mrs Goodwin is still roaming about in my head to this day. I recall the slavish due diligence she demanded for a simple five paragraph essay…outline, topic sentence, thesis sentence and on and on. Her rants were epic and known far and wide across the Language Arts hallway of our school. Most famously she used to lecture us: Tell ’em what you’re gonna tell em, Tell ’em, and THEN tell ’em what you told ’em… Just thinking about those classroom bouts of deconstruction and cadence unnerves and exhausts me still.

And grading scale? Well, if you were lucky, she didn’t like you. If she didn’t like you, she deemed you unworthy of her time and countenance (recall that she was old like Moses). So, that meant that you could fly under the radar with nice solid papers written to mirror the rubric. However, if she liked you…Katy bar the door!…turning in a paper was like leaning headlong into a shark tank. My papers came back with grades like C- and D+ on generous days. She decorated each assignment with red pen remarks like “pedestrian effort” or “the library has a thesaurus to lend.”

In all fairness though, the grades she entered onto my report card and transcript were all A’s.

You see, Mrs Goodwin operated on two grading scales.There was the one for assigned classwork and the one that she set for individual ability. She liked to mess with your head if she saw promise in your writing. She loved my writing and abhorred my sloth-y attitude so it went pretty ugly most days in class.

The perfectionism of BJ Goodwin stayed with me for years. My school essays were spot-on “A” winners every time. Often those essays got me in to places that my GPA wouldn’t have allowed. However, to sit down and try to write as I do today was unthinkable agony. Family stories have too many captions and side-notes to fit the formula for five perfect paragraphs. So, for the longest time, I found the task so overwhelming that I would spend weeks grinding away at a single story to share on a special occasion, or give up without really starting.

Enter: NaNoWriMo

A few years ago, I took a leap of faith and tried my hand at the November writers’ ritual.In order to stay up to speed with the rigors of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) I had to let go of writing so “rigidly.” The best description I have for the method I slid into is that it’s sort of like writing War and Peace during a slow motion train wreck. It’s really simplistic and frankly a lot of fun.

I just write.

The first time I wrote “all crazy” like this, I understood how Brooke Shields felt in her Calvin Kleins….wow! I do no punctuation, no tense checking, and pay no mind to pesky stuff like spell check flags. I just type or scribble. I often catch myself figuratively talking Mrs Goodwin off of the ledge… I’m sure she would find the whole concept regressive and obscene.

The initial work I produce isn’t even remotely well written. It feels raw and naughty! My only goal is to move the general idea of out of my head and onto the tablet (old school or electronic…I use both equally). Once one of these creative episodes I call “tantrums” has passed, I review the words I have gathered. I salvage a train of thought. Most of the time it works out. Sometimes, even I have no idea where I was headed.

Mom note: Could this explain those ” I’m Naked at School” dreams? Hmmm…

Personally my biggest writing challenge is keeping the subject train on the tracks. With my gnat-like attention span I can flit off into the sunset at any moment. So this “wilding” style of rough copy writing I have come to habituate works really well for me. What does happen consistently from this messy-writing thing I’ve adopted is this~ I end up with an edited piece that I can label as a story. I also generally net at least one or two more “side stories” that can be brainstormed and fleshed out as well. Mostly I think it works out for me because I know nobody is looking.

Which rounds the corner to the point that I started out with…the “June 23rd incident of shame”

And so it happened that late last month while my fingers were having a happy party on the laptop– a slip occurred. I was really excited and on a roll. I just knew I could get my pages wrapped up and polished before the Wednesday class. After hours of writing, I decided I would have one last go at a character sketch before bed. I opened the trusty Chromebook, took a deep breath, arranged the tails of my robe “just so” and went at it.

Silly, naughty, messy me… I didn’t notice that I had opened WordPress, not Google Docs. With one fatal keystroke I inboxed a few hundred blog subscribers one of the most disjointed, random, ungroomed paragraphs ever seen by mankind. I went to bed and waited for Mrs Goodwin to rise up from her grave and slap me with a big red F-

sigh…

life goes on

Here’s an excerpt from the whole mess (before I fixed it for my workshop of course):

So othat daywhen Annie Thomlinson pronounced my weiner dog Brut too fat, and further announced that for this and many other insufferable transgressions made by me by mere virtue of myexistence, all now valid reasons, that she could nolonger be my friend, the rest of the world went about their busiiness. The whole world, Inncluding Cindy , Sandy and for the most.part Zelda too.

And my belated apologies to those who were subjected to it. By the time it got to peer review, it was kinda stellar. If you found it in your inbox, sorry, my bad, it was a little shy of coherent.

So how about you? What are your writing secrets? Do you hold back by self-imposed perfection (I call that my inner Mrs G) or do you run loose and free and pick up the pieces later (my silly naughty mess method). Do you simmer ideas and words somewhere in between? Does your method serve you well…or do you need to try something new and daring? Most importantly …are you getting the stories of your loved ones and predecessors written down?

Come stand naked in the school hallway with Mom…Tell me ~what’s YOUR secret for getting the words onto the page?

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About three years ago when I sat down to start blogging, I positioned myself before an ailing desk-top computer while balancing a hefty copy of “Blogging for Dummies” on my knee. This is what I ended up writing after hours of tinkering~

I’ve spent years chasing my ancestors through wet cemeteries, musty boxes and up family trees. I’ve dug around libraries, attics, and read books and webpages galore. What I have learned from all this is simple…

no one else gives a hoot if they can’t somehow “relate” to those old names and numbers

Truth is, all that detective and scholarly work is really boring on paper. My family used to roll their eyes when they saw me coming with yet another binder of “genealogy stuff.”

What to do ~what to do? Let me tell ya…

We’re all connected with our families, not by pedigree or heirlooms, but through our common stories. Names and dates have no real pull on our heartstrings. But the joys and struggles of everyday life in another time can fascinate us like a flickering campfire.

Oh and a little tattle-tailing or a dash of dishing-dirt doesn’t hurt either!

Without stories our family tree efforts are just tidy (for some) stacks of paper with footnotes and a few photos sprinkled in. I invite you to take the next step with me and you will soon be writing an account of your family’s history to be read , re-read and actually cherished for many years!

When I originally wrote that about three years ago, I had no idea what I had gotten myself into. All of the wonderful people we have lost (and gained!) in the short life of this blog is both sad and miraculous. I’m speaking of blogs abandoned or begun as well as losses and gains within my own family.

Telling family stories and even writing our own as “memoir” has become quite a “thing.” I am seeing this form of writing honored and applauded more and more. Only a handful of years ago, a Memoir was one of the trappings (or curses) of celebrity or notoriety. Now, regular people, in common circumstances are writing prolifically about themselves and their “inner circle.” To this I say–HooRay!

I would like to add a very important “beware” to those of us who are writing stories to be read years from now.

I’m not talking about identity thieves and computer hacks or natural disasters and copyright laws. I want to advise you to look over all of your writing in a different way. You need to read over the pages you have enjoyed and slaved over in order to preserve them as readable and understandable documents…later.

Here’s the important point of this:

Have people of many generations read over the words you have written.

Have them work separately. Ask them to mark or note any words, phrases or sayings that are not immediately clear to them (ie: is there anything you have questions about/ don’t understand?).

Take these comments and figure out how to make them clear to “other” generations. As an example, genealogists are accustomed to seeing the word “nee.” Someone who is looking at a family story for the first time may not know the meaning of that funny word. Yes, they could look it up (as we all probably had to) but wouldn’t you rather have them enjoy the tale that is spun on the page? Well of course you would! Other things that some would take as common knowledge are in danger of being lost to time. Like Ration Books and what they were, when, and why they were out there. How about “no swimming in summer?”

Now, decide how to work the definitions and explanations into your work. Below are methods that I have used or seen used to good effect. Remember you want to tell stories more than to give history tutorials. Likely, you also want to preserve these people beyond their vital statistics for lots of generations to come!

A mix of these will probably work in your own writing~

1. Use all the antiquated, colloquial, unusual, foreign, confusing word in italics. Then use a method similar to footnotes at the bottom of the same page to explain it. So perhaps you would write a sentence and italicize nee. Then, appearing at the bottom of the same page a note would appear as such:

nee~woman’s surname before marriage.

2. Work the words into the story and thus describe it (or the phrase etc) as a part of the tale. An example would be to describe an old, rarely used phrase or slang or other term as such:

Jane grew up in the roaring 20’s when women wore long straight dresses, without bras, and were thus called “flappers” and things that were new and exciting were referred to as “the bee’s knees.”

3. Perhaps a bit more complicated sounding (but when working with several family members a work-saver) is the “overview page.” This is a prelude, preamble or forward to the material you are about to present. It isn’t uncommon to find your family stories falling into neat categories related to universal events. Listen to conversation around a holiday table and you will likely hear talk of “the war years,” or “during the depression,” or “on White Avenue.” So, describing that place and time as an overview for all of the stories under the heading will set the tone for everyone’s notable adventure during that family “era.” You could even combine method 1 and method 2 together italicizing the funky words and noting them, and describing events of the time and the vernacular of speech. This is a great way to get around a re-write for several finished pieces. It’s sort of backtracking, but getting the work done without overdoing. This one works best when each story is written as a separate event like my post “Honest Abe and Too Many Jimmys” ( click here to see it http://wp.me/p2pmvZ-72 ) perhaps under a heading such as “Myths and Mysteries.” When the story is a synopsis of someone’s whole life, like my post “Uncle Joe” (see it here http://wp.me/p2pmvZ-bb ) using only the first or second method would be best.

So what tips and tricks do you have up your sleeve tricky writer? Share your secret weapons with all of us in the comment box! Then~ Maybe someone should write that down…